Previously:
The good news and the bad news for Democrats in Missouri (November 9, 2013)
Representative Stacey Newman (D) in the House Chamber. [file photo]
Representative Stacey Newman (D) succinctly summed up the prospects:
….Remember those old worn-out legislative themes during election years? They will be slightly altered for 2014.
Guns, Voting Rights and Attacking Women
These are the new and improved GOP legislative priorities for next year. Coincidentally, they have been my main legislative focus – fighting back against these extreme type of bills since I was first elected in 2009.
Even though the 2014 session doesn’t kick off for 2 whole months, I am preparing now for anticipated bills…policies strictly designed to incite Tea Party GOP base voters in an election year.
Pre-filing of 2014 bills does not officially open until December 2nd. However, action has already begun
1. “The Worse Gun Bill in the Country”
It’s back, this time courtesy of Sen. Ron Richard (R-Joplin), one of the 2 senators who upheld the governor’s veto on HB436 in September, causing the “most extreme gun bill in the country”, as referred to by national media, to fail.
Sen. Richard announced last week he plans to file an almost identical bill next session, with the very same title, “The Second Amendment Preservation Act”.
Huh??
[….]
2. Hang On to Your Voting Rights
Paying attention to the voter suppression efforts in GOP states: Ohio, North Carolina and Texas? Keep your eyes open because voter suppression is coming back to Missouri. Again.
For the ninth straight year, the GOP in Missouri is expected to file Voter ID bills designed to make it tough (even prohibitive) for elderly, the disabled, working poor, students and women to continue to vote.
It is a two part process. First we must change our MO Constitution by a vote of the people to allow Voter ID and then we must pass a companion bill which would determine how it would work.
The GOP’s plan is to put the Voter ID referendum on the November 2014 ballot in order to affect the 2016 Presidential Election. You should know the drill by now. If you can’t legitimately win elections in the voting booth, then you try other measures. Voter ID proposals are strictly partisan with every Democrat in Missouri and other state legislatures consistently voting against them.
[….]
3. Attacks on Women’s Reproductive Health
Keep your seatbelt fastened. Unbelievable restrictive bills interfering with medical decisions that belong between a woman, her partner and her physician are popping up in state houses all across the country. AND they are becoming more and more extreme.
[….]
I’m ready for our own Extreme Anti-Women bill next session, whichever one Speaker Tim Jones decides to push.
[….]
[emphasis in original]
Uh, yep. The agenda of the right wingnut republican majority in the Missouri General Assembly is nothing if not predictable.
Bill prefiling starts in twenty-four days.
We can’t wait. It’s just like the anticipation of opening those holiday gifts – with the only possible payoff being lumps of coal.